Origin required to play Battlefield 3

The PC retail version will force you to create and use an Origin account when you play, DICE's Daniel Martos revealed on Twitter (spotted by bf3blog).

It is unclear at this time whether digital versions bought from other online shops will also require Origin to play, but it sounds like a good bet.

The decision comes as little surprise. EA has moved many of its games away from Steam in recent months, and confirmed last week that Battlefield 3 would not be sold through Valve's platform.

EA said Valve's service "restricts our ability to directly support players" - a reference to Steam's Terms of Service agreement, which forces games to deliver DLC and patches through Steam rather than through a game-specific client.